So as I see it, if you are trying to get rid of this symbol, you need to recognize that it is not something from the outside that must be extinguished and pushed away. Rather, it is at the heart of our own culture.

One of the most insidious, and perhaps ultimately one of the most dangerous, manifestations of neo-Nazi resurgence may well be its steady subversive infiltration of contemporary popular and consumer culture.

In a metropolitan area with the world's second largest Jewish population, residents and visitors have endured a spate of recent anti-semitism not seen since Mel Gibson went to rehab, a variety of Jew-baiting that's strange by any standard.

While walking with my 8-year-old son near our home in Manhattan, he spotted a purple swastika scrawled across a billboard advertisement. As I took in the complexities of the situation, my son uttered words that made my heart break.